so ive been chasing VP6R for a couple days now and just could not get through. tried everything i thought i knew - timing, listening for where he was pulling calls from, working split properly. nothing. kept getting stomped by the lids calling on the DX's frequency which like, come on guys its we all know better than that.

anyway what finally worked was dropping my power a bit weirdly enough. i was running about 600w and just not getting through, switched to 400 and started timing my calls to hit right as the previous QSO was finishing - like i mean right on the edge, not waiting for the full roger. not tail-ending exactly but close. also started listening for where he was tuning on the pileup, noticed he was consistently pulling stations about 3-4 kHz up from where most people were camping so i moved up there and got through on the third call.

also turned off my noise blanker which sounds dumb but my NB was apparently smearing my transmitted audio somehow through some feedback path i still havent fully diagnosed. audio sounded cleaner on the monitor after that. not sure if that actually helped or if i just got lucky.

curious what other techniques people actually use in a real pileup, not the textbook stuff, the stuff that actually works when youre staring down 400 EU stations all screaming at once

the moving up thing is huge and most people never figure it out. DX operators develop patterns without even realizing it and if you pay attention for like 10-15 minutes before you even key up you can map where theyre fishing. i keep a scrap of paper next to the rig and just note the offsets when i hear them come back to someone. you start to see it pretty quick - some guys stay in a tight window, some sweep, some deliberately pick from the edges of the pileup to avoid the chaos in the middle.

the other thing that genuinely helps is if you can find out who the op is. certain DXpedition operators have very well known styles. N0UN for example is really predictable about working up-frequency edges. others will always grab partials so you might actually benefit from sending just your suffix a few times to get them to come back with a question mark. i do that on CW pretty regularly - send the suffix twice and then the full call once. works more than youd think.

also your NB thing isnt that weird, ive seen the TX monitor get confused by strong RF in the shack especially if your coax run isnt great. could just be that.

honest question and maybe this is obvious but how do you even know where to set your split when the DX just says "up" and half the pileup is apparently deaf? i usually just guess around 5 up and hope for the best. been working DX for about two years and pileups still feel like total chaos to me most of the time